by Kali Hart
It’s all very exciting, and everything I’d dreamed of. But I’d be lying if it didn’t feel a little… well, empty. Like someone is missing. Someone.
In the east wing, I find a familiar face I haven’t seen since the party. “Katy, is it?”
“Hey!” She greets me with such a large smile, I almost expect a hug to follow. But we’re not family. We’re not even friends. She’s Luke’s sister, and the reminder twists my heart. “I hear great things about you.” She winks.
“Your mom?”
“Yeah. She can be a bit much sometimes, but she loves this place. And she certainly loves having you on board.”
I want to feel genuinely happy about such a compliment. But it’s not earned. Not since Luke intervened. I never would’ve gotten this job. It didn’t even exist. “I’m happy to be here.”
Katy frowns at that response, and I fear she’s caught me. “What’s wrong?”
We’re not exactly friends, and it would be foolish to become friends since she’s Luke’s sister. But the logic isn’t enough to keep me from spitting out the truth. “I don’t know if I really earned this job, you know? Luke arranged the whole thing—”
“Stop right there, Britt.” Katy holds up her pointer finger, a poised threat that she’ll poke me right on the lips if I don’t listen. “You’re mad at him for the wrong reasons.”
I don’t try to hide my sigh. She’s his sister. Of course she’d take his side.
“Yes, our mom is the curator. Yes, he convinced her to look at your resume—that you left in an empty office, by the way. But my mom would never have hired you if she didn’t see something special in you. Surely you’ve worked for her long enough to figure that out?”
I’m speechless, because I know she’s right. All this time, I’ve been mad at Luke for… for what exactly? I’m perfect for this museum. I made sure of that on my own. He saw an opportunity to help me on the way to accomplishing my dreams, and he took it.
“He loves you, you know.”
“Surely not anymore,” I mumbled.
“He misses you.”
I want to believe it’s true, but so much time has gone by. He hasn’t reached out once. I asked him not to call me, and he didn’t. It might be too late. But suddenly I know I have to try. “Do you know where he is?”
LUKE
I rub my eyes, sure I’m hallucinating. That can’t be Britt getting out of her car in my driveway. The woman shouldn’t even know where I live.
It’s been a month—a whole fucking month—and I haven’t heard from her once. I’d missed her like hell, but her radio silence was the loudest message she could’ve sent me. Last week I’d accepted things would never work.
Yet, here she is on my doorstep. In that damn sexy little black dress.
“Hi,” she says, her voice sheepish and shy. Very unlike the woman I got to know during our brief time together. “Can I come in?”
Though I’m steeling my emotions, I’m not completely heartless. I step aside and let her come in. The urge to pull her in my arms and squeeze her tight against my body is overwhelming, but I take a step back instead. “How’s the new job?”
“Good. It’s really good.” Her voice waivers, and I soften. She’s nervous.
Hell, I’m nervous too. I’d fallen madly in love with this woman in a heartbeat, and though it was fast and didn’t make any sense to me, I knew it was real. I never questioned that. It’s still real. “I’m glad it worked out. I’m glad you’re happy, Britt.”
We haven’t moved far from the front door, and I don’t want to. It’s too risky. If Britt won’t stay forever, I can’t do this. The heartache I experienced in her absence was been a special kind of hell I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.
“I’m sorry, Luke.”
She has my attention now, but in that damn dress, she did anyway. She knew what she was doing when she put that on.
Swaying those sexy hips, she closes the distance between us. I should stop her, before something happens we can’t take back. But I’m lost in a trance, my gaze locked on those pillowy lips I’ve missed so much.
“I’m sorry,” she says again. “I was unfair to you. I was ungrateful, and it wasn’t right. You were only trying to support my dreams. But I was too stubborn to see it. I just wanted to get that interview on my own”
“I had no control over what my mom was going to do, you know.”
She nods, her hand snaking around my neck. “I do now.” She stretches on tiptoes toward my lips, but I can’t.
“Wait.”
“What?”
“I can’t do another fling, Britt. I can’t do this tonight and wonder if you’re going to disappear on me again tomorrow.”
With each second that passes in silence, I’m worried she can’t commit to more. I prepare for my heart to shatter into fragments.
“I—I love you, Luke.”
I’m sure I’ve heard her wrong, because that was about the opposite of what I expected to hear her say to me. “You’re gonna have to repeat that.”
“I love you. I didn’t realize it when we met, but my feelings have been bubbling beneath the surface, just waiting for me to discover them. I think I’ve loved you since the moment you caught me sneaking off in the museum.”
I absorb her words, and my heart swells. My hands wrap around her curves until they’re on that sweet ass. I pull her toward me. My dick has missed her, too. I’m about to show her just how much. “I love you, Britt. I don’t want to spend another day without you.”
“Another day, huh?” She’s teasing me again.
“I’m serious.” I shimmy her dress up her thighs, happy to discover she has nothing on beneath it. A quick slide of my hand reveals how wet she already it. It’s nothing compared to what I’m going to make her in a few minutes. “I want to spend my life with you, Britt.”
“What are you saying?”
“Marry me.”
Her eyes widened, and the last sliver of fear wedges it’s way in. Will she run?
“You’re sure?”
I slip two fingers into her pussy, winning that moan that makes my dick twitch. “I’ve never been more sure of anything.”
“Yes,” she says, her voice breathy. Her eyes are starting to roll back in her head as her hips rock in my hand. “Yes!”
I slow my hand, tormenting her until I get the commitment from her I need. “Yes what?”
“Yes, I’ll marry you!”
I take her over the edge, until she comes on my hand. Licking her sweet juices from my fingers, I lead her to the bed. Because we’ve only just gotten started.
Epilogue
BRITT
I adjust my white dress, waiting for the perfect moment to step out of the small office turned dressing room. Instead of an aisle, I’ll be walking down the hallway to the east wing. It took a lot of begging and pleading with Mrs. Reynolds to hold the ceremony there, rather than the party room, but she finally relented.
“I’m about to marry my best friend,” I tell Katy. She’s the sister I never knew I was missing. Today, she’s also my maid of honor.
“He’s a lucky man.” Katy helps me with my veil, then squeezes my hands. “It’s your day, today. Let’s get you married to the man of your dreams.”
Luke is standing near the center exhibit, looking sexy as sin in that tuxedo. I can’t wait to get him out of it later. Happiness I’ve never felt until meeting him sweeps through me. I’m so in love with this man it should be illegal.
“You’re so beautiful,” he says to me when I reach him. Tears in his eyes, if I’m not mistaken. “I can’t wait for you to be my wife.” He leans in until his lips are against my ear. “I can’t wait to get you out of that dress.”
I wink at him. “Then I guess we better hurry up and get married.”
LET’S STAY IN TOUCH!
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